Shallow well pump install?

[Marlowe]

A buddy of mine gave me a shallow well pump. I'd like to put it in myself. The water table around these parts is fairly close to the surface, usually around 25'. I've had a couple of friends tell me they've put a pipe down themselves by using a pressue washer and using the blast to dig the hole. Has anybody here ever done that? The two buddies who told me how are not available for help so I'm just going from memory, which doesn't work like it used to.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[Gomez]

Tom,

Hmmm...

Interesting idea, I've used a pressure washer to cut down a few inches to bury cable (LV of course) but never thought of going down 25 feet.

What is the water going to be used for?

I take it there is no bedrock to go through.

 

[tawilson]

By no means a well expert, but it doesn't sound feasible to me. I've heard of burying a pipe that way, like for a dock or a deck, but how are you supposed to get any water into it? Seeping up through the bottom? A typical well goes through the soil to hit a vein in the bedrock. And what size pipe. If you are talking an 1 1/2" pipe, by the time enough water seeps up in it to do any good, you pump will drain it in no time. Plus, if the water table is at 25', your pipe will have to go down past that a ways. I have a shallow well setup at my house, and I believe unless you can reconfigure your pump to a jet pump and use two pipes, 25' may be too far to try to draw the water up. Not a very professional answer, sorry, but I don't think it will work.
Memory also failing.

 

[Marlowe]

No bedrock to go through around my part of the country untill you get way down there. The deep wells are around 900' according to my neighbors. Lots of folks use the shallow wells for irrigation and such, and some even use them for potable water. The downside is that the shallow wells are what we refer to as sulfur water. It has a faint scent of rotten eggs to it. Many years ago I used one for about a year and it's hard to get used to the smell. I want to use it during the construction process for general clean up, then I'll use it for irrigation. A deep well will cost me around $3000.00. I'd just as soon keep that money in hand untill I need the clean water of the deep well.

Thanks for the input.

Tom

 

[Egon]

Using water pressure to drill a hole?

It does work. We refer to it as Hydovac. It's used in areas where there may be underground facilities or the soil is frozen. A Pressure washer may not have the volume to be able to flush the debris out at greater depths.

Egon

 

[slowrev]

When I lived in FL (about 5 yrs ago) HD had a well jetting kit. a special point you hooked to PVC pipe and water hoses and jetted a well into the soil (aka dirty sand). You then had another smaller diameter pipe with a screen filter to stick down in the outer pipe to suck up the shallow groundwater with. I know of several people that did it for lawn watering, but never did it myself.
Ben

 

[Marlowe]

Now that sounds like what my buddies were telling me about. I'll run by Home Depot and take a look. There's one just a couple of miles from me now.

Thanks.

Tom

 

[EddieWalker]

What an interesting concept. I'd used tips on PVC pipe and a garden hose to create tunnels under driveways and sidewalks, but never thought about going straight down with one.

More water preasure would give you more drilling ability, but I wonder if just using a hose and pushing down on a metal pipe with a jetted nozzle on the end would work?

Food for thought,
Eddie

 

[turnkey4099]

Jetting a well down does work but it has to be rock free soil. Any rock it hits will stop it.

Re: limited flow. Those type wells depend on hitting an aquifer (as do all wells). They do not run just on the amount of water in the pipe.

Using a shallow well pump at 25' depth is right on the verge of a failure. The general rule is that you can suction lift (which is what a shallow well pump does) from about 26'. It is possible to use a jet pump and your pump may have the ports on it to do that.

Harry K

 

[GaryQWA]

What you're talking about is called a well point well. They are used in sand and gravel aquifers by many people. Do a search for "well point" + well exactly, there are many web sites discussing them and the materials used to build one.

Gary
Quality Water Associates